Archives

Learn about the Shaker farm animals this April at Hancock Shaker Village.

Spring is a fabulous time to visit a Shaker Farm.

The month of April is devoted to baby animals at Hancock Shaker Village, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Guests of our Berkshires Bed and Breakfast have a few more days to experience this event.

Daily Behind-the-Scenes tours are being given at 2 p.m. (with additional tours at 10 a.m. on weekends). Get close to newborn pigs and learn a bit about animal husbandry, Shaker style. The crowning moment is a hayride around the farm, with animals aboard. Warning: not for the allergic!

New work by Stockbridge artist Susan Merrill will be on display in the Poultry House throughout the month. Her paintings feature animals from Hancock Shaker Village; proceeds support programming at the village.

Beginning in April, it’s also possible to Choose Your Own Shaker Adventure at Hancock Shaker Village. You can learn a Shaker Song and Dance, take a calf for a stroll, and cook in the Shaker kitchen (which dates from 1830). Learn about Shaker architecture, Shaker Spirituality, or Shaker Medicine. These adventures are offered through the fall, and are a wonderful way to delve into the Shaker lifestyle.

Sharing the beauty and bounty of the Berkshires is one of the best parts of the work we do. We love to help guests discover our “back yard” during their stay.

One of the ways we do this here at our Berkshire Inn is through the food we serve.

One of the great pleasures of life: eating food you’ve grown

We are members of Berkshire Grown, an organization dedicated to supporting local food and farms. Whenever we can, we purchase locally grown fruits and vegetables and locally raised meats. As you know if you’ve stayed with us in the past, many of the herbs and summer vegetables that end up in our breakfasts are grown in our own garden.

Many of our guests travel from great distances to experience the communities and natural beauty of the Berkshires. It’s the least we can do to serve foods that reflect the land our guests have come to visit.

Many of the people who travel to Berkshires Bed and Breakfasts come from the large metropolitan areas of New York, Boston, and Hartford. Others come from smaller cities in and around the Northeast: Albany, NY; Manchester, NH; Worcester, MA. We have many guests from Canada and many from the Midwest. New England draws people from everywhere.

Experience The Ring Cycle at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington.

Spending an evening at one of our local theaters is a favorite activity for guests of Berkshire Inns, no matter where they call home.

The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington offers sensational programming year-round. Dance, music, theater, opera, and film are all showcased in this restored, historic theater. In the next two months alone, guests of Applegate Inn may:

The newly restored Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield also offers year-round programming. On April 17, 2012, our guests may see The Magic of Bill Blagg Live, a show that has been called “The Second City meets David Copperfield.” Bon Journey, a Bon Jovi and Journey tribute band, performs on April 20; and the Bronx Wanderers take the stage on the 27th to share their love of doo-wop and rock n’ roll.

Adding theater to a Berkshires Bed and Breakfast getaway makes time here that much more memorable. So go ahead, have a night out on the town in Pittsfield or Great Barrington.

Before a good massage, our bodies are weighed down by our worries. Though we may not be aware of how we hold on tightly to expectations, disappointments, hopes, hold on tightly we do. Muscles are constantly flexed, connective tissue contracted. To a greater or lesser degree, we hurt.

Bliss out with a massage at Soul Spa during your stay at Applegate Inn.

During a good massage, the tightness is released. Muscles are worked, connective tissue stretched; worries dissipate, expectations and hopes fade away. We cease to think at all. We are aware of our bodies: our muscles and tendons and bones and skin.

After a good massage, we feel no pain, no aches. We feel no bones, no muscles. We simply exist. It is an incredible feeling, to lie still and be, not feel. It’s what it must be like to be a pool of still water.

The Spa Indulgence Package at our Berkshire Inn can transform you from a tense body to a pool of still water. Leave the city and worries behind. Travel to the peaceful Berkshires and indulge in a Deep Tissue Massage or a Swedish Massage at Soul Spa. Guests of Applegate Inn receive a 10% discount.